Improvement in the chamber of ordnance and other fire-arms



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.v

JOHN P. SOHENKL, OE WORCESTER, ASSIGNOE To HIMSELE AND E. A.A

DANA, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

IMPROVEMENT IN THE CHAMBER 0F ORDNANCE AND OTHER FIRE-ARMS,

Speciiicatimi forming part oi' Leiters Patent N0. 23,746, dated April 19, 1859 To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN I). SCHENNL, of TVoreester, in the county of TVoreester and State of Massachusetts, have made a new and useful' Invention relating to Fire-Arms' and Ordnance; and I do hereby declare that the same is fully described and represented in the following specification and the aecompanying drawing, which exhibitsa longitudinal section of a cannon or piece of ordnance with my invention applied thereto, such invention heilig, properly speaking, an improvement in the application to a piece of ordnance of a secondary or sinaller barrel for the purpose ot' containing a separate charge of powder, whose explosion, preparatory to that of the main charge, is to operate so as to overcome the his inertia; oi the projectile or charge of shot, and'I thereby diminish t-he recoil of' the gun.

On the 12th day of October', A. l). 1858, Letters Patent of the United States ot' America were granted to myself and Edward A. Dana for the invention on which the present may be said to be an improvement.

The nature of the said present improvement consists in the combination of an intercepting rod or leader with the hollow tige or auxiliary charge-chamber, and a projectile suitably adapted to the gun or piece of ordnance. Such rod or leader maybe inade of wood or any other suitable material, and is to be so constructed and arranged that while one end of it shall connect with and support, by entering or otherwise, the projectile, sabot, or wad, the other end may be fitted to enter for a certain distance the interior walls ot' the secondary barrel aforesaid, leaving, however, a sufficient space thereinbeyond for the initial powder-charge. The space in the main barrel of the piece immediately surrounding the rod or leader canin this way be used as well as that which surrounds the secondary barrel. for holding` the lmain powdercharge, thus enabling me by simply increasing the length of the Said rod or leader to reduce in the same proportion the length of the projecting portion of the secondary barrel, even to the extent of dispensing with all projection of the latter, in which case the secondary barrel aforesaid would be simply-a barrel of the piece, the saine as is -shown inthe drawings; also,r in making the entering portion of. said rod or leader and the interi/Or walls of the seeondarybarrel both slightlyconic'al or tapering, so that the fornier may easily enter and closely iit and be stopped by the latter; also, in forming or fixingin or on the entering portion of said rod or leader a ring or cup of some elastic or dnctile inateriahwhieh, by the explosion of theinitial powder-charge, shall be expanded closely against the walls of the secondary barrel as the rod or leader is driven therefrom, and thus prevent the premature explosion of the main .powder-charge; also, in forming said secondary bar-rel of a sufficient depth to contain both' the initial powder-charge and the entering portion of the rod or leader, the vent-hole of the piece to be carried down and open directly into the aforesaid initial powder space. y

In the drawing the figure represents a gun or piece of ordnance, ot' which B is the bore,

b b, in connection with o, Ais the secondary barrel, C the venthole, a the initial powdercharge space, Q g thel inain powder-charge space, p the rod or leader, c the ring or cup in or on the saine7 s a sabot connected with and supported by the rod or leader p, and S a shot or shell, the operation of all which, when the pieceis loaded and tired, is as follows: The initial charge in space a being first ignited by' the vent-fire, and exploding, impartsinotion to the rod p, sabot s, and projectile S, which is instantaneously followed by the explosion of the main powder-charge inspace g y, red by the flame following the rod or leader p, by which process the Tis inertia of the proj ect-ile has been overcome before the explosion of the pared with the ordinary inode of loading and iiring.

The advantage of this improvenient'is that4 enables me to multi? secondary barrel of zss lengt-h where it piojeets into the main arre1, thus more effectally securing it against ,1J ury.

Having thus described' my invention, what disclaim and claim is ns follows:

I do not claim the invent-ion claimed and eseribed in the United States Patent numered 21,802; but I do claim the combina-tion .gun or piece ot' ordnance.

JOHN P. SCHENKL.

Witnesses:

WM. N. GREEX, J. B. DEXTER, J r. 

